The Future of Longwave 252kHz (RTE Radio 1)

lertsnim wrote: »

How many people in Ireland listen to Radio 1 on long wave?

Quite a few in Northern Ireland. The FM signal doesnt cover everywhere and the DTT multiplex only carries RnaG not that DTT is any good in cars

savertelw252 wrote: »

RTE are SILL planning to cut off the elderly, the lonely, the sick and the isolated, a disgusting attack on our diaspora and on rural Ireland. WE MOST STOP THIS. We are planning a protest outside RTE Donnybrook on Monday October 31st at 2.52pm
Please follow us on twitter or Facebook to help #savertelw252

Problem is on Boards you'll inevitably get a lot of comfortably off folks with a Marie Antoinette attitude to the Diaspora. "Let them use the Internet" will be the basic argument. In reality, many older people are like my elderly mother who can barely work the television remote let alone a smart phone, which is being touted as a 'realistic' alternative to LW 252.

In any case there always has been a dismissive attitude to the Irish away, especially those in the UK. Cheerio and give us your money twice a year is the classic official Ireland attitude. When small money is needed to secure the cultural lifeline, it is grudged.

Not sure if emotionally charged appeals to consider "elderly" are the best way to make the case for retaining the longwave service when people of any age can and do benefit from it.

ThisRegard wrote: »

How many other countries, via the tax payer, fund a radio service for those that left the country??

Quite a lot actually.

Isn't that spill over though rather than purposely directed at the whole of the country? Isn't the World Service separate to that?

savertelw252 wrote: »

RTE are SILL planning to cut off the elderly, the lonely, the sick and the isolated, a disgusting attack on our diaspora and on rural Ireland. WE MOST STOP THIS. We are planning a protest outside RTE Donnybrook on Monday October 31st at 2.52pm
Please follow us on twitter or Facebook to help #savertelw252

I won't wish you good luck on this.

As a member of the fabled dispora I'll tell you plain and simple that I'd rather the taxes paid by those still living in Ireland were not wasted providing 300,000 watts of transmission output on an utterly outdated and underused radio broadcast.

Pull the plug and good riddance.

You'll be lamenting the demise of rabbit eared black and white Pye televisions next, or the termination of analogue TV broadcasts. A 3/4G dongle plugged in somewhere with a fiver a month prepaid service needs no complicated setup or maintenance and a basic internet radio will not be beyond the abilities of any OAP to operate and give them whatever they need.

I'll have to organise a group myself: #feckrte252

First Up wrote: »

BBC World Service is not broadcast on Long Wave.

You obviously don't listen on the Radio 4 LW frequency in the small hours on the morning

I find it pretty amazing that we get poor FM reception where we live yet both the BBC and RTE on LW come in loud and clear. Tuning into a LW station is also much easier. FM stations are there and gone as you tune but LW stations tune in over a much larger area making them much easier to find.

Longwave is amazing good value for money but RTE pretend it's some sort of severe burden. What about the real waste in RTE? Some years ago, (around the same time that MW 567 & 729 were closed down) they spent millions of Euros to recruit Colin Hayes from the independent radio sector, Mr Hayes never had any impact on ratings for them but what do they do in the weeks after they announce the closure of lw in 2014? They repeat the exact mistakes of the past by spending millions of euros to recruit Ray D'Arcy who like Colin Hayes has gone on to have no impact on ratings

savelongwave wrote: »

Some who shout down the diaspora benefitted through their funding of the education system in the early sixties etc amounting to over €13M- brown envelopes of a different kind. 3,000 engaged in the Dep of Foreign Affairs UK audience research - the first of its kind. So great was the response that extra staff were hired. RTE are attempting closure by regularly pulling the plug on the service on the excuse of essential maintenance.

Ah, so everyone at home now owes it to everyone now in the UK to continue to maintain broadcasts on LW, is that it? Because 50-60 years ago Irish business-people overseas put money into the Irish education system? An education system that was run by the church for the most part?

Look, I don't care about LW broadcasts. In this day and age, the excuses you're making just don't stack up. A 50 euro android phone, with or without headphones, will allow anyone anywhere there's WiFi or 3/4G internet access to listen to the RTE app.

RTE broadcasts on LW should end. It's overdue. If people like you put even half the effort you put into whinging about RTE doing the RIGHT THING into helping educate older listeners overseas learn how to listen in online, you'd be doing a better service for all concerned.

Let it go. Move with the times now, won't you? Most of the people who will bemoan the end of LW service will at the same time have a smartphone or a PC in the corner of the living room anyway. Spread the information they need to get listening in using todays medium of choice instead of winding yourself up into a tizzy over what amounts to a common sense decision.

savertelw252 wrote: »

3 Many elderly people depend on lw for religious programming not transmitted on FM

http://www.dublindiocese.ie/watch-listen-live/

There's always an alternative.

While I'm at it, here's a perfectly affordable FM/DAB/WiFi radio that anyone who can use a mobile phone and a Sky TV remote should be able to manage:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pure-One-Flow-White-DAB-Digital-FM-Wi-Fi-Internet-Radio-Music-Streaming-/301732161227?hash=item4640a366cb:g:F1EAAOSwyQtV6pDe

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

Ah, so everyone at home now owes it to everyone now in the UK to continue to maintain broadcasts on LW, is that it? Because 50-60 years ago Irish business-people overseas put money into the Irish education system? An education system that was run by the church for the most part?

Look, I don't care about LW broadcasts. In this day and age, the excuses you're making just don't stack up. A 50 euro android phone, with or without headphones, will allow anyone anywhere there's WiFi or 3/4G internet access to listen to the RTE app.

RTE broadcasts on LW should end. It's overdue. If people like you put even half the effort you put into whinging about RTE doing the RIGHT THING into helping educate older listeners overseas learn how to listen in online, you'd be doing a better service for all concerned.

Let it go. Move with the times now, won't you? Most of the people who will bemoan the end of LW service will at the same time have a smartphone or a PC in the corner of the living room anyway. Spread the information they need to get listening in using todays medium of choice instead of winding yourself up into a tizzy over what amounts to a common sense decision.

You don't know many old people do you.

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

I know plenty of older people.

Do you really think it's beyond their ability to learn how to plug in headphones, press 'RTE Player' on the screen and pick a station to listen to?

Or are you avoiding trying to make some other point?

Well I have older relatives who have just given up on technology. No point telling them how easy it is they have been thwarted by it so many times, they aren't going to be bothering anymore. I find that annoying but that's the way it is.

Ah, so because someone is elderly and decides they can't be bothered, the Irish taxpayer should keep funding their antiquated broadcast service of choice?

My arse they should.

More Music wrote: »

If the RTE presenter lineup is this bad why do you even want to listen to it? Why would anybody want to listen it, and in LW also just to add to your misery.

There are sports and religious programs broadcast on LW which aren't broadcast on FM.

How many people exactly will this be affecting?

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Probably a few hundred.
The surveys carried out by the campaigners were loaded in their favour and can't be trusted.

Source?

lertsnim wrote: »

. RTÉ Radio is available to all of the UK on satellite television and also the internet. ow.

How does one listen to satellite television while driving ?